The Jake I never knew

It's been both enlightening and distressing reading all of these stories about the Jake that I never knew. I grew up with Jake. He is the first memory I have of a friend. During kindergarten I would spend the free afternoons at Jake's house waiting for my parents to get off of work. Mrs. Sauer became somewhat of a surrogate mother. I've got so many great memories of the Sauer household - Mr. Sauer nicknaming me "Rosco P. Coltrane" after the Dukes of Hazzard character, a mutual friend of ours that had whopping cough coughing in Kate's orange juice in hopes that I could go to the Michael Jackson concert with Jake instead of Kate(sorry about that one Kate).
Jake and I would remain inseparable up until the high school years. My family moved to Ayr and I was forced to attend Southwood in Cambridge. We kind of drifted apart after that. The last time we spoke was right after his mom died. I am afraid to say that I never knew the cyclist, the young father or the co-worker who lit up the office. As I've read through these memories the past few days it has become more obvious to me that even though I didn't get the chance to know Jake in his latter years, the Jake I knew was still there. My lasting memory of Jake takes place on the steps of the Sauer's back porch in Victoria Park. Teddy, Jake's younger brother, couldn't have been more than 3 years old. He was walking down the steps of their back porch and fell off of the side of the steps into some thorn bushes. I remember Teddy' face being covered with blood. I'm not sure who cried more, Jake or Teddy. In that one little instant there was a glimpse into the man that Jake would become. A person whose heart for others far out distanced any kind of concern he had for anything else.
While I'm saddened to think that I never had the opportunity to get to spend time with Jake in his adult years, or that our kids never had the chance to play together, I am consoled by the fact that I did know the Jake that everyone has so kindly written about.......it was just so long ago.